 UNPLUG: Unplug electronics such as battery chargers and other equipment when not in use.

 WATER: Install faucet aerators and low-flow shower heads to cut heating costs by 50 percent. This could save $300 a year. Also, turn down the temperature of the hot water heater to 120 degrees, or the "normal" setting when home. Turn it down further when away.

 APPLIANCES: Buy Energy Star qualified appliances, which are up to 40 percent more efficient than other standard models.

 LEAK PROOF: Seal cracks, gaps and leaks and add insulation. Test for air leaks by holding a lit incense stick next to windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, and other potential openings. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you've found an air leak.

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STARKSBORO — A happy side effect of Starksboro's Robinson Elementary School's tight embrace of energy-efficiency and self-sufficiency is the abundance of interesting lessons for students.

The school is among the most environmentally friendly in the state. All of Robinson's electrical needs come from the sun, a claim no other school in Vermont can make, Principal Dan Noel said. The building had a top-to-bottom efficiency makeover a little over a year ago. And this time of year — harvest season — as much as 95 percent of the produce served to kids at lunch comes from nearby farms.

Noel lists the usual reasons for his school's embrace of sustainability: It's great for the Earth; it saves taxpayers money, or diverts money away from energy consumption and toward educating children; it makes the school safer and healthier; the students eat nutritious food to get them through the day. And, he says, it fits with the Vermont sustainability ethos.

A somewhat unexpected bonus is that some lessons have become more engaging for students than they otherwise would be, Noel said. One example: A former part of the curriculum was studying and counting the number of letters in people's last names in different countries to establish patterns. Not very exciting. Now, a sixth-grade math class monitors and calculates the solar panels' energy production to learn when they generate the most electricity.

"We're doing research right at our school, and not just things that other, made up schools are using," said Jenna McArdle, a sixth grader at Robinson. She said past math lessons included fictional scenarios as the basis for calculations.

Robinson Elementary School is in the forefront of using alternative fuels and energy efficiency in a state that is well ahead of most others in terms of energy sustainability in its schools. Starksboro, a town of 1,777 residents, is itself an environmental leader, with its town buildings using only renewable energy. Robinson, with about 160 students, reflects the town's approach — and it has gone further than dozens of school districts in Vermont that have embraced energy-efficiency.

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Across the state, 43 school buildings are heated with wood chips, and four use wood pellets, said Norman Etkind, director of the school energy program at the Vermont Principals Association. About 30 percent of Vermont public-school students in kindergarten through grade 12 are in buildings heated by wood chips or pellets, the most in the country, Etkind said. Wood and wood pellets are considered more environmentally friendly than fuels such as oil and gas because wood is renewable — cut down trees, and new ones can grow back.

Etkind said he has done energy-efficiency audits in connection with Efficiency Vermont at 365 school buildings in the state during the past six years. He said many more schools are interested in conducting similar audits.

Because of a 2010 federal earmark, 10 Vermont schools received solar panels to help power the buildings, said Cathy Hilgendorf of the state Department of Education. The schools tied the solar panels with their curricula, she said. The schools are The Edge Academy, Essex Middle School, Woodstock Union Middle and High School, Bradford Elementary School, Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes School in Burlington, Essex Community Education Center in Essex Junction, Folsum Education and Community Center in South Hero and Hazen Union School in Hardwick.

These efforts position Vermont schools to help match the state's goal of having 90 percent of its energy needs come from renewable sources including sun, wind, hydro and biomass, Etkind said.

Starksboro's solar journey

In Starksboro, the centerpiece of the Robinson School's embrace of self sufficiency and energy conservation is the array of 25 solar panels on the edge of a cornfield behind the elementary school. Six of the panels help power Starksboro municipal buildings, while the rest keep the lights on in the school. The solar arrays were installed a year ago.

The panels came out of an idea generated by the Starksboro Selectboard to form a partnership with the school to install the solar arrays, which are capable of generating 100 kilowatt hours of power. The School Board agreed to install the arrays from AllEarth Renewables in Williston, and by last autumn, the panels were cranking out the juice.

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The school paid $1,000 up front for the solar panels. The school leases them for five years, for the amount of money the school would have paid in electricity bills. Noel said it is hard to tease out how much electrical costs now would compare to previous years before the solar panels were installed because the school has improved its energy efficiency, changing the amount of electricity it uses.

After five years, Robinson Elementary either can buy the panels or renegotiate the lease contract."The Selectboard and the School Board were completely gung-ho. Community forums indicated the community was solidly behind the idea," said Wendy McArdle of Starksboro, who is Jenna's mother and the managing director of the Vermont Energy Education Program.

On balance, the panels generate as much electricity a year as the school uses. In June and July, when the sun is strong, no children are around, and the school's energy demands are low, the panels add electricity to the grid. In the dead of winter, when the weather is usually dark or cloudy, the school takes in electricity from the grid.

It all roughly balances out to near zero electrical use from traditional sources, Principal Noel said.

Students at Robinson are encouraged to go out, look at and study the 25 solar panels. Earlier this month, the Robinson students celebrated a "solarfest," at which they learned some of the broader implications of local efforts to turn away from fossil fuels to heat buildings and to turn on the lights.

Among the things they learned: Starksboro is the first town in Vermont to have 100 percent of its public buildings powered by clean, renewable energy.

One class calculated the kilowatt hours of electricity the panels generated at different times.

"They're like, 'This is the best math class. We're having so much fun,'" Noel said.

The solar panels and the electricity they generate also are incorporated into other classes, such as science, Noel said. For instance, a Grade 3 and 4 science class used the solar panels as a springboard to discuss electrical generation and how it relates to fossil fuel consumption.

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Students also wrote essays about what they think Vermont will look like 20 or 30 years into the future. Noel said he was struck by how many of the students' essays depicted solar panels as critical parts of the state's future.

Philosophical benefits

The solar arrays fit the social philosophy of the school, and by extension the town of Starksboro, Noel said.

"It's the right thing to do, because we're not relying on other people to make our electricity. That's a very Vermont sort of independence," he said.

Students have embraced the school's efficient ways, and especially the solar panels.

"It's really cool, because if we save a lot of money, we can use it for other things for the school to make it better," sixth grader Olivia Young said.

The school made sure the kids were involved heavily in the energy savings and sustainability efforts, or at least fully informed about them, Noel said.

Some students even had a chance to scramble up into the school's attic to check out the thick, freshly blown layer of insulation and spanking-new air handlers that make the air in the school clean and comfortable.

There's evidence the school's eco-minded culture spills over into students' homes, as Noel hopes it will.

"Having solar power at school and not using as much electricity makes me think a lot about turning off the lights at home," sixth grader Hannah Gratton said.

Other schools have seen similar results. At Crossett Brook Middle School in Waterbury, solar panels went onto the roof in 2010 and became part of the school's curriculum, Principal Tom Drake said. That move toward sustainability inspired three students to lobby the local School Board — successfully — to retrofit electrical fixtures with efficient equipment, Drake said.

One of those students, Cormac Stevens, 13, an eighth grader at Crossett Brook, said a group of classmates brainstormed how best to improve the school's efficiency, developed a plan and a PowerPoint presentation, and persuaded school officials to replace the lights in the gymnasium and a commons area. The new lights will pay for themselves in two and a half years, Stevens said.

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A PowerPoint presentation showed the lights cost about $22,000, but grants the school received cut that total to about $9,700

Meal time

In Starksboro, students are reminded every day of the school's ecological mindset when they sit down for lunch.

The school's food service chief, Emily Betz, former owner of the Bistro Sauce restaurant in Shelburne, said during this time of year, up to 95 percent of the vegetables come from local farms.

The heavy reliance on local vegetables means students are dining on more healthful lunches, Betz said. And she avoids the "eat your peas and broccoli" lecturing by making dishes that are at once familiar and creative. For instance, she recently served green macaroni and cheese by mixing in a broccoli and spinach pesto.

"Kids say, 'Emily, it's too healthy.' But the idea is to make it taste good," Betz said.

Other foods are fresher than canned items, and when possible, locally produced, too. Joyce Shepard, who has worked in the Starksboro school's lunchroom for 47 years, makes bread products in Robinson's kitchen rather than buying mass-produced breads.

"Joyce makes the best rolls, the best bread. Her biscuits are ridiculously good," Noel, the principal, said.

The future

Noel said Robinson Elementary School is looking for other ways to improve energy self-sufficiency.

Funding is tight in this era of budget cuts and near-recession, but Noel said the trick is to have at least a general plan in case money becomes available. That way, the school can have a credible rationale when applying for grants

President Barack Obama's jobs bill, if it is approved, could pump tens of millions of dollars into Vermont for efficiency projects that would create hiring. There's no guarantee that any elements of the bill will pass, after the Senate killed the full measure, and Obama proposed to send the bill in various pieces to lawmakers for approval.

Regardless, Noel said, the school is readying plans to make efficiency improvements in the school gymnasium and other areas of the building, just in case.